Monthly Archives: April 2009

Last night Voltaire played his very last show in his very first full-band tour right here in Ithaca. Of course, I was there, and of course I have some pictures!

The last time I saw Voltaire perform with his full band at Blacksun III, where the performance was limited due to time restraints and the number of bands that had to perform. This time there were no such limitations, so there was time to play all the crowd favorites. It was a really great show and while I do miss the banter you get during his solo performances, I appreciate the chance to hear his music as it sounds on the CDs. Unfortunately I was too busy dancing and having a good time (and lending my real camera to a friend to collect video footage) to take more than a blurry camera phone shot of the show:

I really wish I had an iphone so I could have gotten this app before it was pulled.

The vitriol in the comment section of the TechCrunch page saddens me, even given the content. It seems that people really can’t help but take themselves far too seriously. You don’t like it? Don’t buy it. No one is making you go shake any real babies.

Maybe 5% of the commenters agreed the app is an awesome concept (if anything, it needs more gore). A few people even pointed out that it could maybe SAVE the lives of babies if a temperamental parent was unaware that shaking their bundle of screams and poop was something that could, y’know, permanently shut the thing up (assuming that is not actually what the parent wanted).

Probably the best comment (from BubDZombie):

This is the worst thing I’ve seen since ‘A Modest Proposal,’ which I’m still trying to get banned from libraries and schools.

Everything old is new again. I’m sure the point was lost on everyone who needed it.

It must be fun to be a new-age techno witch-hunting bookburner! Too bad I have standards that aren’t easily threatened by books, video games, and other media.

I’m rather late to the party here, but this must be done! It had never before occurred to me that this is something I should do– I wish I had thought of it myself, and that such a thing were happening in the US.

I’ve always thought it’s very unfair that children have something as personal as religion decided for them at an age where they have no say in the matter- in my opinion, it’s akin to slavery. After reading The God Delusion and learning about babies being clandestinely baptised without their jewish parents consent then being stolen from their parents by the Church (as they had the “right” to be raised Catholic), I feel much more strongly about it.

So while magical splashes of water don’t actually do much of anything, making a big stink about them DOES raise awareness of something I find objectionable, so it’s certainly worth the minimal effort.

I Theresa M. Solow, having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.

Sometimes I feel like I’m being run through the psychology experiments of a sadist. This somewhat amuses me, so I will document it for posterity:

(14:55:49) REDACTED: I IMed you first. If I deny this later, I’m lying.
(14:56:41) tekniklr (y): Duly noted
(14:56:49) REDACTED: Who is this?
(14:57:07) tekniklr (y): Teri.
(14:57:10) tekniklr (y): Who is this?
(14:57:31) REDACTED: Watson
(14:57:40) REDACTED: You sent me a message
(14:58:05) tekniklr (y): When did I do that?
(15:07:23) REDACTED: 11 minutes ago.
(15:07:52) tekniklr (y): Yes, I was responding to a message I just got from you.
(15:08:31) REDACTED: What was my message?
(15:09:12) tekniklr (y): (14:55:49) REDACTED: I IMed you first. If I deny this later, I’m lying.
(15:10:22) REDACTED: What is that??? I never sent that. I don’t even know you.
(15:11:04) tekniklr (y): Heh
(15:11:29) tekniklr (y): Y’know, someone is playing a joke on someone, and I don’t really care who, because it’s not very entertaining.
(15:12:03) REDACTED: I am sorry about that. I feel you.

Yes, I could have had some fun there. But I really have better things to do at the moment.